Whew! This week was awash with news. So, we transformed that news into advice, tips and how-to’s that you can reference for years to come.

Take Facebook’s video chat launch — we’ll guide you in setting it up. Or the space shuttle launch — we provide the Twitter accounts for dozens of astronauts and space experts. And Google+ has been on the minds of millions — we present its pros and cons. Mashable not only releases breaking news, we help you learn how to apply it to your business, your interests and your personal life.

If spare time for reading didn’t exactly factor into your busy week, here’s a roundup of resources that appeared on Mashable.

3 New Apps For Self Improvement Since Americans had some extra time last weekend for the Fourth of July, we highlighted three startups with products that could help you improve your finances, dating conundrums or skills.

Tech & Mobile

7 Great JavaScript Resources As a JavaScript developer, you’ll need to keep up with the latest news and learn new skills. We’ve put together a list of our favorite JavaScript resources to help save you time and energy.

10 Fascinating Facts About Phone Numbers You probably dial a few of them every day, but do you ever stop and think about what’s behind a phone number? When the first numbers were introduced? How you ended up with the area code you did?

The Social Marketing Series is supported by Campaigner®. Campaigner email marketing enables small, medium and large businesses to strengthen customer relationships and drive sales by connecting to their customers quickly, simply and affordably. Visit www.campaigner.com to learn more.

If you’ve tried to run a campaign on Facebook and were frustrated by its poor results, you’re not alone. Facebook‘s ads have a pretty poor performance record and its ads continue to be cheap, though plentiful.

The good news is that Facebook is working hard to improve its ads’ performance. The company continues to experiment with new ad formats and has lately cozied up to the ad community with Facebook Studio, a forum for new campaigns that features a directory of ad agencies.

The idea is that marketers can learn from each other as they try to navigate Facebook, which is terra incognita for everyone since it’s so new. In that spirit, here are five recent Facebook campaigns that offer some instructive examples on how the platform can be used to amplify a message or interact with consumers in a new way.

1. “Infinity” — Batelco

Bahrain Telecommunications Co., a.k.a. Batelco, isn’t going to give Apple a run for its money in the name-recognition department anytime soon, but for those interested in social media marketing, it’s the little brand that could. You may recall that Batelco’s “Infinity” video made the short list of favorite TED ads earlier this year, but the Facebook aspect of that campaign is just as notable.

Batelco aired two trailers for the video in movie theaters and online in September 2010. To spread the video even further, Batelco’s app included a prompt for users to activate their webcams and take pictures of themselves reacting to the video. The picture was then posted on Facebook (with the user’s permission). Next, the company and agency FP7/BAH disseminated information about the making of the video. Realizing that all the target customers were online, Batelco also set up kiosks in malls and airports letting consumers see the video. As a result of the exposure, Batelco gained more than 200,000 fans on Facebook. More than 70% of Bahrain’s Facebook community are fans.

The Upshot: Batelco bet heavily on a viral video and it paid off, partially because the video itself is so compelling, but also because it provided a means for people on Facebook to add something to the experience.

2. Fashiontag — Flair Magazine

Flair, a Belgian women’s magazine, observed that women check out each other’s wardrobes in real life and figured that might be the case online as well. That reasoning prompted the creation of Fashiontag, an app that lets users identify their friends’ clothing in Facebook pics and ask a question about the item. The question also was posted on the friend’s wall.

Those conversations then ran on a Fashiontag Page on Facebook. The best ones ran in the magazine. According to Advertising Age, after the app launched on March 22, the magazine’s Facebook Page got a 35% bump in fans, to 23,000. Best of all, this was done on the cheap: The app only cost about $35,000 to create.

The Upshot: Flair created a genuinely useful app and one that tied in with its brand mission. As a result, the title not only got attention, but found a new way to interact with readers and create content.

3. Comida Kraft — Kraft Foods

Kraft introduced Comida Kraft, a recipe website targeted to Hispanic consumers, in 2001. Nine years later it launched a Comida Kraft Facebook Page as well. Kraft stepped things up in May 2011, by enlisting Mexican celebrity chef Alfredo Oropeza, which boosted the Page’s fans by 38%. But Oropeza isn’t just lending his name. In July, Kraft is planning three livestreamed video chats with the chef, during which participants can ask questions in real time. In November, Kraft is planning to give Latina moms who subscribe to Comida Kraft recipes by email — those who subscribe to the Comida Kraft Mobile Club will get free exclusive access to additional recipes and videos on their mobile phones.

The Upshot: Kraft, working with digital marketing agency 360i, has added new activities to engage its Facebook fans. The addition of a celebrity chef and exclusive access gives consumers a reason to become fans and gives fans special access.

4. The Squeezing Smiles Machine — Prigat

The problem with a lot of branded Facebook Pages is there’s nothing to do there. Israeli juice company Prigat not only gave its fans something to do, it put them to work. Prigat set up an app that let fans activate an orange juice machine by smiling. (The company used face-recognition technology to recognize those smiles.)

It turns out, a lot of users were up to the challenge. More than 20,000 users uploaded photos of themselves, which led to 30,000 “likes,” (a 300% jump in growth). More than 40,000 oranges were also squeezed during the effort — the juice was given to charity.

The Upshot: Bridging the real and the online world can spark some interesting ideas. Asking users to smile also ensured that the program was fun.

5. Your Very Own Mad Men Ad — Mad Men Season 4 in the Netherlands

Here’s the pitch: Don Draper and his team have a new assignment — an ad about you. But first they have to know a bit about you — what kind of car you drive, what’s your drink of choice, that kind of thing. Next, they need a picture of you. Then you get to see a few mockups of ads about you. When you settle on one you like, you post it to your site. The best ads will run in the Dutch magazine BLVD Man and on billboards in Amsterdam.

The campaign, from an agency called Greenberry, launched in June to promote the premiere of season 4 of Mad Men in the Netherlands. So there you have it: a promotion for a show about advertising that creates advertising about you that might actually run as a real ad somewhere. Is your head spinning yet?

The Upshot: This promotion stays true to the concept of the product it promotes, but involves consumers in the process as only Facebook can.

What other innovative Facebook campaigns have you seen? Let us know in the comments below.

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While some businesses are still figuring out the value of building a fan base, entertainment brands have long understood that a vibrant fan community is critical to their success. Perhaps this why entertainers were among the first to embrace Facebook as a way to attract, engage and communicate with fans. And because the most effective Facebook marketing programs often combine compelling content with personality, entertainment brands are uniquely positioned to succeed with this medium.

But even for the most popular entertainers, creating a robust fan base on Facebook requires more than just creating a Page and posting content. Here are four ways entertainment brands can accelerate their Facebook success.

1. Use Questions, Polls and Quizzes to Engage Your Community

If you post a piece of content on your Facebook Page, you might generate a good number of comments. But if you post your content in the context of a question, a poll or a quiz, you make your content interactive and provoke viral distribution.

Sarah Hofstetter, SVP of brand strategy and emerging media at digital marketing agency 360i, recommends trying out the new Facebook Questions tool to engage users around a question. 360i is using Facebook Questions in its work with BRAVO Network. For example, this recent Facebook Questions post on the Real Housewives of New Jersey Page encouraged fans to pick a side in a family feud that has emerged in the show’s storyline, generating over 15,000 votes.

GLEE is also a fan of this approach, posting a poll every Tuesday to spark conversation around the show prior to its airing that night. These weekly polls routinely generate thousands of interactions.

Also consider embedding a promotional offer or a download in a poll or a quiz — this tactic can work to drive very high conversation rates, since fans are already actively engaged with your brand.

For example, Glenn Beck is promoting his magazine Fusion through a series of polls and quizzes on Facebook. After taking the poll or quiz, fans are presented with a custom page promoting Fusion and enabling fans to click through to subscribe.

2. Reward Your Fans

Engaging fans is one way to keep them happy; rewarding them is another. While there are many ways to reward your Facebook fans, many entertainers have found that sharing exclusive or free content gives fans a reason to come back time and again.

“I think the best piece of advice to give someone who is looking to build a fan base on Facebook is to tell them to figure out what they do best and give it away for free,” says Chris Taylor, co-founder of MicControl, a blogging platform for the emerging music community. “Social media has made ‘free’ a word that consumers have begun to expect.”

Taylor points to Chris Webby as a great example of how this strategy can work. Webby, an up-and-coming rapper, regularly releases free mixes via Facebook. This approach has helped Webby reach the 100,000 fan mark.

Webby’s fans “are some of the most dedicated fans you will see in the emerging music industry — they buy all of his merchandise, they buy tickets to shows and will travel hours to see him perform,” says Taylor. “By giving his fans free music, interacting with them on Facebook and Twitter and showing how much he truly cares, his fans are more than happy to show him how much they truly care.”

Rewarding your fans can also be as simple as making sure your Page provides valuable information, such as upcoming show dates or releases. For example, DJ Jody Wisternoff keeps his fans current with custom tabs for both his gigs and new music releases, and he posts personal updates in the run-up to each show, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at the highs and lows of life on the road.

3. Let Fans Behind-the-Scenes

Letting fans get behind-the-scenes is not only an effective way to reward them, but also a great way to take more ownership of your personal brand.

Jessica Sitomer, CEO of TheGreenlightCoach.com, encourages entertainers to use their work as an opportunity to promote themselves creatively on Facebook. Sitomer suggests doing a “behind-the-scenes” video before a shoot or a show.

“Get creative with your videos; they can be of you getting ready at home, getting your make-up done in the trailer or prepping your equipment on set,” says Sitomer.

Sitomer points to Juliet Landau, best known for her work as Drusilla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, as a great example of this approach. “Landau wanted to break out of her genre,” says Sitomer, “so when she got a job as an action hero in a film, she leveraged her connections from her Drusilla promotions and contacted a magazine to do a shoot of her as the action hero. She then had a cinematographer film the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of the photo shoot.” Landau then shared the video broadly on her own Facebook Page as well as the fan pages her fans created.

Some entertainers are even tying this behind-the-scenes content to becoming a fan, requiring that fans Like their page to access it. For example, actor and author Rob Lowe created a custom “Fan Wall” on his Page, where he shares exclusive content and excerpts from his new book Stories I Only Tell My Friends with people who “like” his Page.

But there’s no need to wait; many entertainers are already tapping the tremendous value of their existing fan base today by launching a Facebook storefront, turning their fans into buyers and product evangelists.

“Shopping on Facebook is the next step in the evolution of e-commerce,” says Christian Taylor, co-founder and CEO of social commerce company Payvment. “Facebook is the perfect place for musicians, comedians and other entertainers to promote and sell their content and merchandise. Their fans are already there, and Facebook users don’t like to leave Facebook … so why send them to a separate website to transact?” he says.

Actress Molly Sims is using Payvment’s free Facebook commerce storefront to promote and sell her “Grayce by Molly Sims” jewelry to her more than 150,000 fans and others on Facebook. The storefront also includes Sims’ personal posts, updates and pictures to create a more integrated and social shopping experience.

Other entertainment-focused applications, such as Nimbit, offer musicians, managers and independent labels a storefront for Facebook. Nimbit’s free store allows musicians to sell or give away digital music, and for an additional subscription fee, they can also sell CDs or vinyl, merchandise and e-tickets.

“We’ve found that musicians who use Facebook to launch their releases can benefit greatly from the viral nature of the sharing that goes on,” says Carl Jacobson, VP of marketing at Nimbit. “Fans become promoters, and we’ve seen some artists more than double their expected sales as a result.”

What other best practices have you come across on entertainment-related Facebook Pages? Let us know in the comments.

Everybody needs to get their name out there on the social web. For entrepreneurs, however, it’s an even more critical aspect of the job. A social presence gives you the credibility to attract clients, partners and investors by making yourself available and demonstrating your personality and experience.

Building your online brand in a meaningful way is no easy task, and there are many tools available to get you on the right path. Below, we’ve picked 10 tested methods and highlighted some of the best web tools to help your brand gain momentum in a crowded online marketplace.

1. Media Requests

Being quoted in news articles is an excellent way to demonstrate your authority. It’s a free way to promote yourself and demonstrate thought leadership. There are a few excellent tools out there that connect reporters with people looking to get quoted.

2. Custom Short URL

Having your own custom URL shortener is a great way to get your name out there. If you often share links on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks, it’s very useful. Eric Ries is a prime example. When he distributes a link, he uses his own shortened URL: ericri.es.

3. Q&A

Sharing your knowledge on Q&A sites is a superb way to build credibility around your name. There are quite a few sites to choose from, so start with the one that has the most buzz around it at the moment: Quora. Robert Scoble has demonstrated the value the site can provide. Having answered more than 500 questions, he’s built a following of more than 22,000 people.

4. Profiles

Be present and active on social networks. It’s crucial to set up your profiles and use the sites to your professional advantage.

6. Social Email Signatures

Turn your email signature into a social and informative experience. When exchanging emails, everyone in your network will easily be able to find out more about you.

Wisestamp is a popular signature plugin that allows you to create sleek signatures with social icons, RSS feeds and more.

7. Guest Posting

Search for blogs in your area of expertise and pitch them specific ideas for posts. Each blog has its own style and focus, so make sure to tailor your pitches to each outlet. Be ready to share writing samples if asked, and be open to working with editors to revise your post as necessary. Alltop and Technorati are good places to start looking for tops blogs within your area of expertise.

8. Virtual Business Cards

Create a virtual business card so that it’s easy for people to find you and share your information with others. There are many ways to go about this:

Twtbizcard: This site lets you transform your Twitter profile into a business card.

Bump: This is an app that allows you to bump phones together to connect with people.

9. Newsletter

Sending out a monthly newsletter will allow you to build up a vast network. If you share valuable content with subscribers, they will then share it with their friends — bringing you a new subscribers and fans. If you do a good job, your list will continue to grow.

Tiny Letter: A simple platform for creating and distributing a newsletter

Aweber: Users rave about this paid service, which comes with many options for building out your newsletter

As an example, Kevin Rose, co-founder of Digg, shares interviews, products and knowledge through his Tiny Letter newsletter, Foundation. At $3.99 per month, it’s a bargain for readers who value his content.

10. Eat with Influencers

The opportunity to grab a meal with other potentially influential people is within your grasp. These days, it’s easy to set up networking meals through online tools like Let’s Lunch or GrubWithUs.

Let’s Lunch is a one-on-one lunch meeting generator that matches people based on reputation, influence, requests and practicality. Right now, it’s only available to people in NYC, Silicon Valley and San Francisco. GrubWithUs allows you to connect with others at group meals that you either find or set up yourself.

What tools have you used to build your online brand? Let us know in the comments below.

“The web is what you make of it,” reads the parting text in Google Chrome‘s latest commercial featuring Lady Gaga.

It’s a simple eight-word slogan for Google’s web browser but it represents so much more when you connect it to Gaga, who took to the web this year to create an inescapable marketing spectacle for her Born This Way album.

In the months leading up to the May 23 album release — and even now — Gaga has paved a path for stars and brands to get inventive with the ways they use digital and social media to promote themselves and connect with fans.

The 25-year-old is no stranger to success on the web. She remains a heavyweight on major social networks: In the past year, Lady Gaga was the first artist to reach 1 billion views on YouTube; she beat President Barack Obama to 10 million Facebook fans (she’s now closing in on 35 million); and most recently, she was first Twitter user to acquire 10 million followers.

The promotional juggernaut further ramped up her all-encompassing web presence, fostering partnerships with Zynga for the FarmVille-inspired GagaVille, Starbucks for a massive scavenger hunt, VEVO for exclusive premieres, HBO for a concert special, Rdio for free lifetime subscriptions, iTunes for a promotional countdown, Best Buy and Livestream for an album signing and Gilt Groupe and Amazon Cloud Player for deals.

“Gaga and her team are some of the best marketers around; they understand the importance of integrating social with traditional media, engaging audiences in real-time, and most of all, telling a story that is relatable and worth spreading,” said Alexa Scordato, a Gaga fan, digital strategist and community manager for MAT@USC.

Even Lady Gaga’s critics have to acknowledge the magnitude of her marketing medley: “I’ll probably get cyber bullied after this from all her Little Monsters, but I’m not a huge Gaga fan,” said Romey Louangvilay, senior account executive of digital and social media at Euro RSCG PR. “With that said, I give her credit for her artistry and marketing genuineness.”

Below, we’ve compiled a huge swathe of the digital and social media initiatives behind Gaga’s Born This Way. Flip through the roundup and then let us know in the comments which tactics you thought were most creative or most ridiculous.

Zynga's GagaVille

On May 17, Zynga launched the Farmville-style GagaVille, which garnered much ridicule from Gaga haters and laughs from even the most devoted Little Monsters.

Gamers were able to unlock and stream unreleased tracks from Born This Way and bonus remixes. The game incorporated Gaga's style and personality with users having access to crystals, unicorns and sheep on motorcycles. The GagaVille campaign also incorporated Zynga game cards (buy a $25 card and receive the Born This Way album and bonus tracks for free); Words With Friends (use a Gaga word of the day and be entered for concert tickets); and RewardVille (win virtual goods to use in other Zynga games).

Starbucks Scavenger Hunt

Starbucks and Mother Monster teamed up on May 19 for “SRCH,” a two-week digital scavenger hunt in which participants can scan in-store QR codes, visit blogs and Starbucks digital properties, decode cryptic messages and answer trivia questions to earn prizes.

Yahoo joined the fun on May 23, helping transform the Starbucks Digital Network into all things Gaga. Visitors to the site had access to a special edition of the Born This Way for one day. They also received a free “Edge of Glory” download and an exclusive video by Lady Gaga singing a cappella.

"Considering that Lady Gaga may be the world’s hottest star right now and an innovative creator unlike anyone we’ve seen, imagine our delight when we learned that she’s also a big Starbucks fan," said Alexandra Wheeler, global digital strategy director for Starbucks, in a recent blog post.

The hunt ends June 7.

Google Chrome Commercial

In the this commerical, Gaga is shown at a computer typing inspirational messages such as, "This is our moment. ... Stay strong, Little Monsters!"

The video highlights two things other than the capabilities of Google's web browser: The extent to which fans will broadcast their adoration for Gaga and also Gaga's willingness to return their positive sentiments.

The song for the video is "Edge of Glory," a song from the new album.

Amazon's $0.99 Sale

Gaga fans woke up May 23 to a nice surprise: Amazon was selling the 14-song album as a digital download for a mere $0.99. Fans also received 20 GB of Cloud Drive storage from Amazon.

News of the massive sale spread like wildfire and consumers quickly started experiencing technical difficulties. With servers overwhelmed, people who bought the digital download were unable to immediately access all tracks.

In time, all songs became available, but Amazon users had already unleashed their anger by leaving one-star ratings due to Amazon’s slow service.

Amazon has not disclosed the number of downloads for Born This Way.

Best Buy Live Feed

On album launch day, Lady Gaga stayed up into the wee hours of the night to meet fans and sign autographs at a Best Buy in New York City.

Best Buy promoted the event with a live video feed from Livestream. The video was surrounded by interactive features for fans who couldn't make it to the event.

Google Interview

In March, Google executive Marissa Mayer interviewed Lady Gaga as part of the “Google Goes Gaga" event. She helped promote Google Moderator, a tool that allows fans to submit questions via text or video on the musician’s YouTube channel and subsequently vote for their favorites.

During the Q&A, Gaga talked about her forthcoming album and revealed that she would make her directorial debut alongside choreographer Laurieann Gibson for her second single, “Judas.”

Through Google Moderator, her fans asked 643 questions about the single.

Near the end, Gaga asked a rhetorical yet fitting question to the audience of Google employees and online viewers, “Don’t you love the Internet?”

Robin Hood Charity

In April, Gaga once again dipped her feet into social good by working with the Robin Hood Foundation to launch two Facebook contests in support of the New York-based charity, which benefits the poor and homeless between the ages of 16 and 24.

The contest — to decide how Lady Gaga should split $1 million among five charities — ran from April 26 to May 6 and received 1,057,101 votes.>

She also lent her hand to the victims of the March 11 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, providing an exclusive remix of her single “Born This Way" for the Songs for Japan charity album.

Gaga also donated $1.5 million to Zynga’s fundraising initiative with Save the Children and the American Red Cross via sales of her Japan Prayer Bracelets.

Gilt Groupe Deals

Gilt Groupe offered sales curated by Gaga's fashion director, Nicola Formichetti, as well as charity sales of a Mugler dress worn by Gaga, entrance into the Paris Mugler fashion show and access to a performance from Gaga.

HBO Concert Special

HBO aired Gaga's Monster Ball concert at New York City's Madison Square Garden on May 7.

Rdio Free Music

Rdio created a BTW playlist and a corresponding contest to give away a free music subscription.

Facebook Engagement

Gaga ended 2010 as the celebrity with the most "Likes" on a Facebook Page with 24.7 million Likes.

She has one of the most active and engaged Facebook Pages not only because of her fans but also because she frequently shares status updates, photos, videos and news through the platform. On May 18, for example, she posted a photo collage that displays her album art on buildings, cars and even in and around a New York City subway train.

Vevo Exclusive Premieres

Vevo has so far exclusively premiered each of the official music videos for Born This Way.

The song "Born This Way" has racked up 52.7 million views on Vevo's website and "Judas" has accumulated 35.6 million.

VEVO also recently put together a Lady Gaga playlist available online, on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch or Android devices using the VEVO for iOS or VEVO for Android apps. The playlist includes live versions of "Edge of Glory/Judas" and "Born this Way’ from the May 21 season finale of Saturday Night Live.

iTunes Countdown

Capitalizing on her success, Lady Gaga released two additional songs in advance exclusively on iTunes. Fans got to hear "Edge of Glory" on May 9 and "Hair" on May 16 ahead of the May 23 album release.

GagaVision Videos

A fan favorite, GagaVision gives her Little Monsters a behind-the-scenes look at Gaga. In some of the videos, which are posted on YouTube, Gaga candidly discusses the creative process behind BTW. In other clips, fans get to see the people and places surrounding Gaga.

Twitter & TwitPic Trends

The messages she posts incite a tweet storm from her followers who retweet and @mention her comments, pictures and videos, as well as promote the hashtags she uses.

In April, for example, she revealed the BTW cover art via a Twitpic photo (seen above). The image garnered hundreds of thousands of views in mere minutes.

And More ...

As if that wasn't enough:

Gaga scattered QR codes (pictured) on the web that led back to iTunes where users could download a ringtone of "Born This Way."

Tapulous, a Disney Mobile venture, launched Born This Way Revenge, a Tap Tap Revenge app game for iPhone and iPod. The app features 17 tracks from the deluxe album version, access to GagaVision, Lady Gaga's Twitter feed, three exclusive chat rooms, the official lyrics and Haus of Gaga event lists.

“The web is what you make of it,” reads the parting text in Google Chrome‘s latest commercial featuring Lady Gaga.

It’s a simple eight-word slogan for Google’s web browser but it represents so much more when you connect it to Gaga, who took to the web this year to create an inescapable marketing spectacle for her Born This Way album.

In the months leading up to the May 23 album release — and even now — Gaga has paved a path for stars and brands to get inventive with the ways they use digital and social media to promote themselves and connect with fans.

The 25-year-old is no stranger to success on the web. She remains a heavyweight on major social networks: In the past year, Lady Gaga was the first artist to reach 1 billion views on YouTube; she beat President Barack Obama to 10 million Facebook fans (she’s now closing in on 35 million); and most recently, she was first Twitter user to acquire 10 million followers.

The promotional juggernaut further ramped up her all-encompassing web presence, fostering partnerships with Zynga for the FarmVille-inspired GagaVille, Starbucks for a massive scavenger hunt, VEVO for exclusive premieres, HBO for a concert special, Rdio for free lifetime subscriptions, iTunes for a promotional countdown, Best Buy and Livestream for an album signing and Gilt Groupe and Amazon Cloud Player for deals.

“Gaga and her team are some of the best marketers around; they understand the importance of integrating social with traditional media, engaging audiences in real-time, and most of all, telling a story that is relatable and worth spreading,” said Alexa Scordato, a Gaga fan, digital strategist and community manager for MAT@USC.

Even Lady Gaga’s critics have to acknowledge the magnitude of her marketing medley: “I’ll probably get cyber bullied after this from all her Little Monsters, but I’m not a huge Gaga fan,” said Romey Louangvilay, senior account executive of digital and social media at Euro RSCG PR. “With that said, I give her credit for her artistry and marketing genuineness.”

Below, we’ve compiled a huge swathe of the digital and social media initiatives behind Gaga’s Born This Way. Flip through the roundup and then let us know in the comments which tactics you thought were most creative or most ridiculous.

Zynga's GagaVille

On May 17, Zynga launched the Farmville-style GagaVille, which garnered much ridicule from Gaga haters and laughs from even the most devoted Little Monsters.

Gamers were able to unlock and stream unreleased tracks from Born This Way and bonus remixes. The game incorporated Gaga's style and personality with users having access to crystals, unicorns and sheep on motorcycles. The GagaVille campaign also incorporated Zynga game cards (buy a $25 card and receive the Born This Way album and bonus tracks for free); Words With Friends (use a Gaga word of the day and be entered for concert tickets); and RewardVille (win virtual goods to use in other Zynga games).

Starbucks Scavenger Hunt

Starbucks and Mother Monster teamed up on May 19 for “SRCH,” a two-week digital scavenger hunt in which participants can scan in-store QR codes, visit blogs and Starbucks digital properties, decode cryptic messages and answer trivia questions to earn prizes.

Yahoo joined the fun on May 23, helping transform the Starbucks Digital Network into all things Gaga. Visitors to the site had access to a special edition of the Born This Way for one day. They also received a free “Edge of Glory” download and an exclusive video by Lady Gaga singing a cappella.

"Considering that Lady Gaga may be the world’s hottest star right now and an innovative creator unlike anyone we’ve seen, imagine our delight when we learned that she’s also a big Starbucks fan," said Alexandra Wheeler, global digital strategy director for Starbucks, in a recent blog post.

The hunt ends June 7.

Google Chrome Commercial

In the this commerical, Gaga is shown at a computer typing inspirational messages such as, "This is our moment. ... Stay strong, Little Monsters!"

The video highlights two things other than the capabilities of Google's web browser: The extent to which fans will broadcast their adoration for Gaga and also Gaga's willingness to return their positive sentiments.

The song for the video is "Edge of Glory," a song from the new album.

Amazon's $0.99 Sale

Gaga fans woke up May 23 to a nice surprise: Amazon was selling the 14-song album as a digital download for a mere $0.99. Fans also received 20 GB of Cloud Drive storage from Amazon.

News of the massive sale spread like wildfire and consumers quickly started experiencing technical difficulties. With servers overwhelmed, people who bought the digital download were unable to immediately access all tracks.

In time, all songs became available, but Amazon users had already unleashed their anger by leaving one-star ratings due to Amazon’s slow service.

Amazon has not disclosed the number of downloads for Born This Way.

Best Buy Live Feed

On album launch day, Lady Gaga stayed up into the wee hours of the night to meet fans and sign autographs at a Best Buy in New York City.

Best Buy promoted the event with a live video feed from Livestream. The video was surrounded by interactive features for fans who couldn't make it to the event.

Google Interview

In March, Google executive Marissa Mayer interviewed Lady Gaga as part of the “Google Goes Gaga" event. She helped promote Google Moderator, a tool that allows fans to submit questions via text or video on the musician’s YouTube channel and subsequently vote for their favorites.

During the Q&A, Gaga talked about her forthcoming album and revealed that she would make her directorial debut alongside choreographer Laurieann Gibson for her second single, “Judas.”

Through Google Moderator, her fans asked 643 questions about the single.

Near the end, Gaga asked a rhetorical yet fitting question to the audience of Google employees and online viewers, “Don’t you love the Internet?”

Robin Hood Charity

In April, Gaga once again dipped her feet into social good by working with the Robin Hood Foundation to launch two Facebook contests in support of the New York-based charity, which benefits the poor and homeless between the ages of 16 and 24.

The contest — to decide how Lady Gaga should split $1 million among five charities — ran from April 26 to May 6 and received 1,057,101 votes.>

She also lent her hand to the victims of the March 11 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, providing an exclusive remix of her single “Born This Way" for the Songs for Japan charity album.

Gaga also donated $1.5 million to Zynga’s fundraising initiative with Save the Children and the American Red Cross via sales of her Japan Prayer Bracelets.

Gilt Groupe Deals

Gilt Groupe offered sales curated by Gaga's fashion director, Nicola Formichetti, as well as charity sales of a Mugler dress worn by Gaga, entrance into the Paris Mugler fashion show and access to a performance from Gaga.

HBO Concert Special

HBO aired Gaga's Monster Ball concert at New York City's Madison Square Garden on May 7.

Rdio Free Music

Rdio created a BTW playlist and a corresponding contest to give away a free music subscription.

Facebook Engagement

Gaga ended 2010 as the celebrity with the most "Likes" on a Facebook Page with 24.7 million Likes.

She has one of the most active and engaged Facebook Pages not only because of her fans but also because she frequently shares status updates, photos, videos and news through the platform. On May 18, for example, she posted a photo collage that displays her album art on buildings, cars and even in and around a New York City subway train.

Vevo Exclusive Premieres

Vevo has so far exclusively premiered each of the official music videos for Born This Way.

The song "Born This Way" has racked up 52.7 million views on Vevo's website and "Judas" has accumulated 35.6 million.

VEVO also recently put together a Lady Gaga playlist available online, on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch or Android devices using the VEVO for iOS or VEVO for Android apps. The playlist includes live versions of "Edge of Glory/Judas" and "Born this Way’ from the May 21 season finale of Saturday Night Live.

iTunes Countdown

Capitalizing on her success, Lady Gaga released two additional songs in advance exclusively on iTunes. Fans got to hear "Edge of Glory" on May 9 and "Hair" on May 16 ahead of the May 23 album release.

GagaVision Videos

A fan favorite, GagaVision gives her Little Monsters a behind-the-scenes look at Gaga. In some of the videos, which are posted on YouTube, Gaga candidly discusses the creative process behind BTW. In other clips, fans get to see the people and places surrounding Gaga.

Twitter & TwitPic Trends

The messages she posts incite a tweet storm from her followers who retweet and @mention her comments, pictures and videos, as well as promote the hashtags she uses.

In April, for example, she revealed the BTW cover art via a Twitpic photo (seen above). The image garnered hundreds of thousands of views in mere minutes.

And More ...

As if that wasn't enough:

Gaga scattered QR codes (pictured) on the web that led back to iTunes where users could download a ringtone of "Born This Way."

Tapulous, a Disney Mobile venture, launched Born This Way Revenge, a Tap Tap Revenge app game for iPhone and iPod. The app features 17 tracks from the deluxe album version, access to GagaVision, Lady Gaga's Twitter feed, three exclusive chat rooms, the official lyrics and Haus of Gaga event lists.

“The web is what you make of it,” reads the parting text in Google Chrome‘s latest commercial featuring Lady Gaga.

It’s a simple eight-word slogan for Google’s web browser but it represents so much more when you connect it to Gaga, who took to the web this year to create an inescapable marketing spectacle for her Born This Way album.

In the months leading up to the May 23 album release — and even now — Gaga has paved a path for stars and brands to get inventive with the ways they use digital and social media to promote themselves and connect with fans.

The 25-year-old is no stranger to success on the web. She remains a heavyweight on major social networks: In the past year, Lady Gaga was the first artist to reach 1 billion views on YouTube; she beat President Barack Obama to 10 million Facebook fans (she’s now closing in on 35 million); and most recently, she was first Twitter user to acquire 10 million followers.

The promotional juggernaut further ramped up her all-encompassing web presence, fostering partnerships with Zynga for the FarmVille-inspired GagaVille, Starbucks for a massive scavenger hunt, VEVO for exclusive premieres, HBO for a concert special, Rdio for free lifetime subscriptions, iTunes for a promotional countdown, Best Buy and Livestream for an album signing and Gilt Groupe and Amazon Cloud Player for deals.

“Gaga and her team are some of the best marketers around; they understand the importance of integrating social with traditional media, engaging audiences in real-time, and most of all, telling a story that is relatable and worth spreading,” said Alexa Scordato, a Gaga fan, digital strategist and community manager for MAT@USC.

Even Lady Gaga’s critics have to acknowledge the magnitude of her marketing medley: “I’ll probably get cyber bullied after this from all her Little Monsters, but I’m not a huge Gaga fan,” said Romey Louangvilay, senior account executive of digital and social media at Euro RSCG PR. “With that said, I give her credit for her artistry and marketing genuineness.”

Below, we’ve compiled a huge swathe of the digital and social media initiatives behind Gaga’s Born This Way. Flip through the roundup and then let us know in the comments which tactics you thought were most creative or most ridiculous.

Zynga's GagaVille

On May 17, Zynga launched the Farmville-style GagaVille, which garnered much ridicule from Gaga haters and laughs from even the most devoted Little Monsters.

Gamers were able to unlock and stream unreleased tracks from Born This Way and bonus remixes. The game incorporated Gaga's style and personality with users having access to crystals, unicorns and sheep on motorcycles. The GagaVille campaign also incorporated Zynga game cards (buy a $25 card and receive the Born This Way album and bonus tracks for free); Words With Friends (use a Gaga word of the day and be entered for concert tickets); and RewardVille (win virtual goods to use in other Zynga games).

Starbucks Scavenger Hunt

Starbucks and Mother Monster teamed up on May 19 for “SRCH,” a two-week digital scavenger hunt in which participants can scan in-store QR codes, visit blogs and Starbucks digital properties, decode cryptic messages and answer trivia questions to earn prizes.

Yahoo joined the fun on May 23, helping transform the Starbucks Digital Network into all things Gaga. Visitors to the site had access to a special edition of the Born This Way for one day. They also received a free “Edge of Glory” download and an exclusive video by Lady Gaga singing a cappella.

"Considering that Lady Gaga may be the world’s hottest star right now and an innovative creator unlike anyone we’ve seen, imagine our delight when we learned that she’s also a big Starbucks fan," said Alexandra Wheeler, global digital strategy director for Starbucks, in a recent blog post.

The hunt ends June 7.

Google Chrome Commercial

In the this commerical, Gaga is shown at a computer typing inspirational messages such as, "This is our moment. ... Stay strong, Little Monsters!"

The video highlights two things other than the capabilities of Google's web browser: The extent to which fans will broadcast their adoration for Gaga and also Gaga's willingness to return their positive sentiments.

The song for the video is "Edge of Glory," a song from the new album.

Amazon's $0.99 Sale

Gaga fans woke up May 23 to a nice surprise: Amazon was selling the 14-song album as a digital download for a mere $0.99. Fans also received 20 GB of Cloud Drive storage from Amazon.

News of the massive sale spread like wildfire and consumers quickly started experiencing technical difficulties. With servers overwhelmed, people who bought the digital download were unable to immediately access all tracks.

In time, all songs became available, but Amazon users had already unleashed their anger by leaving one-star ratings due to Amazon’s slow service.

Amazon has not disclosed the number of downloads for Born This Way.

Best Buy Live Feed

On album launch day, Lady Gaga stayed up into the wee hours of the night to meet fans and sign autographs at a Best Buy in New York City.

Best Buy promoted the event with a live video feed from Livestream. The video was surrounded by interactive features for fans who couldn't make it to the event.

Google Interview

In March, Google executive Marissa Mayer interviewed Lady Gaga as part of the “Google Goes Gaga" event. She helped promote Google Moderator, a tool that allows fans to submit questions via text or video on the musician’s YouTube channel and subsequently vote for their favorites.

During the Q&A, Gaga talked about her forthcoming album and revealed that she would make her directorial debut alongside choreographer Laurieann Gibson for her second single, “Judas.”

Through Google Moderator, her fans asked 643 questions about the single.

Near the end, Gaga asked a rhetorical yet fitting question to the audience of Google employees and online viewers, “Don’t you love the Internet?”

Robin Hood Charity

In April, Gaga once again dipped her feet into social good by working with the Robin Hood Foundation to launch two Facebook contests in support of the New York-based charity, which benefits the poor and homeless between the ages of 16 and 24.

The contest — to decide how Lady Gaga should split $1 million among five charities — ran from April 26 to May 6 and received 1,057,101 votes.>

She also lent her hand to the victims of the March 11 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, providing an exclusive remix of her single “Born This Way" for the Songs for Japan charity album.

Gaga also donated $1.5 million to Zynga’s fundraising initiative with Save the Children and the American Red Cross via sales of her Japan Prayer Bracelets.

Gilt Groupe Deals

Gilt Groupe offered sales curated by Gaga's fashion director, Nicola Formichetti, as well as charity sales of a Mugler dress worn by Gaga, entrance into the Paris Mugler fashion show and access to a performance from Gaga.

HBO Concert Special

HBO aired Gaga's Monster Ball concert at New York City's Madison Square Garden on May 7.

Rdio Free Music

Rdio created a BTW playlist and a corresponding contest to give away a free music subscription.

Facebook Engagement

Gaga ended 2010 as the celebrity with the most "Likes" on a Facebook Page with 24.7 million Likes.

She has one of the most active and engaged Facebook Pages not only because of her fans but also because she frequently shares status updates, photos, videos and news through the platform. On May 18, for example, she posted a photo collage that displays her album art on buildings, cars and even in and around a New York City subway train.

Vevo Exclusive Premieres

Vevo has so far exclusively premiered each of the official music videos for Born This Way.

The song "Born This Way" has racked up 52.7 million views on Vevo's website and "Judas" has accumulated 35.6 million.

VEVO also recently put together a Lady Gaga playlist available online, on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch or Android devices using the VEVO for iOS or VEVO for Android apps. The playlist includes live versions of "Edge of Glory/Judas" and "Born this Way’ from the May 21 season finale of Saturday Night Live.

iTunes Countdown

Capitalizing on her success, Lady Gaga released two additional songs in advance exclusively on iTunes. Fans got to hear "Edge of Glory" on May 9 and "Hair" on May 16 ahead of the May 23 album release.

GagaVision Videos

A fan favorite, GagaVision gives her Little Monsters a behind-the-scenes look at Gaga. In some of the videos, which are posted on YouTube, Gaga candidly discusses the creative process behind BTW. In other clips, fans get to see the people and places surrounding Gaga.

Twitter & TwitPic Trends

The messages she posts incite a tweet storm from her followers who retweet and @mention her comments, pictures and videos, as well as promote the hashtags she uses.

In April, for example, she revealed the BTW cover art via a Twitpic photo (seen above). The image garnered hundreds of thousands of views in mere minutes.

And More ...

As if that wasn't enough:

Gaga scattered QR codes (pictured) on the web that led back to iTunes where users could download a ringtone of "Born This Way."

Tapulous, a Disney Mobile venture, launched Born This Way Revenge, a Tap Tap Revenge app game for iPhone and iPod. The app features 17 tracks from the deluxe album version, access to GagaVision, Lady Gaga's Twitter feed, three exclusive chat rooms, the official lyrics and Haus of Gaga event lists.

“The web is what you make of it,” reads the parting text in Google Chrome‘s latest commercial featuring Lady Gaga.

It’s a simple eight-word slogan for Google’s web browser but it represents so much more when you connect it to Gaga, who took to the web this year to create an inescapable marketing spectacle for her Born This Way album.

In the months leading up to the May 23 album release — and even now — Gaga has paved a path for stars and brands to get inventive with the ways they use digital and social media to promote themselves and connect with fans.

The 25-year-old is no stranger to success on the web. She remains a heavyweight on major social networks: In the past year, Lady Gaga was the first artist to reach 1 billion views on YouTube; she beat President Barack Obama to 10 million Facebook fans (she’s now closing in on 35 million); and most recently, she was first Twitter user to acquire 10 million followers.

The promotional juggernaut further ramped up her all-encompassing web presence, fostering partnerships with Zynga for the FarmVille-inspired GagaVille, Starbucks for a massive scavenger hunt, VEVO for exclusive premieres, HBO for a concert special, Rdio for free lifetime subscriptions, iTunes for a promotional countdown, Best Buy and Livestream for an album signing and Gilt Groupe and Amazon Cloud Player for deals.

“Gaga and her team are some of the best marketers around; they understand the importance of integrating social with traditional media, engaging audiences in real-time, and most of all, telling a story that is relatable and worth spreading,” said Alexa Scordato, a Gaga fan, digital strategist and community manager for MAT@USC.

Even Lady Gaga’s critics have to acknowledge the magnitude of her marketing medley: “I’ll probably get cyber bullied after this from all her Little Monsters, but I’m not a huge Gaga fan,” said Romey Louangvilay, senior account executive of digital and social media at Euro RSCG PR. “With that said, I give her credit for her artistry and marketing genuineness.”

Below, we’ve compiled a huge swathe of the digital and social media initiatives behind Gaga’s Born This Way. Flip through the roundup and then let us know in the comments which tactics you thought were most creative or most ridiculous.

Zynga's GagaVille

On May 17, Zynga launched the Farmville-style GagaVille, which garnered much ridicule from Gaga haters and laughs from even the most devoted Little Monsters.

Gamers were able to unlock and stream unreleased tracks from Born This Way and bonus remixes. The game incorporated Gaga's style and personality with users having access to crystals, unicorns and sheep on motorcycles. The GagaVille campaign also incorporated Zynga game cards (buy a $25 card and receive the Born This Way album and bonus tracks for free); Words With Friends (use a Gaga word of the day and be entered for concert tickets); and RewardVille (win virtual goods to use in other Zynga games).

Starbucks Scavenger Hunt

Starbucks and Mother Monster teamed up on May 19 for “SRCH,” a two-week digital scavenger hunt in which participants can scan in-store QR codes, visit blogs and Starbucks digital properties, decode cryptic messages and answer trivia questions to earn prizes.

Yahoo joined the fun on May 23, helping transform the Starbucks Digital Network into all things Gaga. Visitors to the site had access to a special edition of the Born This Way for one day. They also received a free “Edge of Glory” download and an exclusive video by Lady Gaga singing a cappella.

"Considering that Lady Gaga may be the world’s hottest star right now and an innovative creator unlike anyone we’ve seen, imagine our delight when we learned that she’s also a big Starbucks fan," said Alexandra Wheeler, global digital strategy director for Starbucks, in a recent blog post.

The hunt ends June 7.

Google Chrome Commercial

In the this commerical, Gaga is shown at a computer typing inspirational messages such as, "This is our moment. ... Stay strong, Little Monsters!"

The video highlights two things other than the capabilities of Google's web browser: The extent to which fans will broadcast their adoration for Gaga and also Gaga's willingness to return their positive sentiments.

The song for the video is "Edge of Glory," a song from the new album.

Amazon's $0.99 Sale

Gaga fans woke up May 23 to a nice surprise: Amazon was selling the 14-song album as a digital download for a mere $0.99. Fans also received 20 GB of Cloud Drive storage from Amazon.

News of the massive sale spread like wildfire and consumers quickly started experiencing technical difficulties. With servers overwhelmed, people who bought the digital download were unable to immediately access all tracks.

In time, all songs became available, but Amazon users had already unleashed their anger by leaving one-star ratings due to Amazon’s slow service.

Amazon has not disclosed the number of downloads for Born This Way.

Best Buy Live Feed

On album launch day, Lady Gaga stayed up into the wee hours of the night to meet fans and sign autographs at a Best Buy in New York City.

Best Buy promoted the event with a live video feed from Livestream. The video was surrounded by interactive features for fans who couldn't make it to the event.

Google Interview

In March, Google executive Marissa Mayer interviewed Lady Gaga as part of the “Google Goes Gaga" event. She helped promote Google Moderator, a tool that allows fans to submit questions via text or video on the musician’s YouTube channel and subsequently vote for their favorites.

During the Q&A, Gaga talked about her forthcoming album and revealed that she would make her directorial debut alongside choreographer Laurieann Gibson for her second single, “Judas.”

Through Google Moderator, her fans asked 643 questions about the single.

Near the end, Gaga asked a rhetorical yet fitting question to the audience of Google employees and online viewers, “Don’t you love the Internet?”

Robin Hood Charity

In April, Gaga once again dipped her feet into social good by working with the Robin Hood Foundation to launch two Facebook contests in support of the New York-based charity, which benefits the poor and homeless between the ages of 16 and 24.

The contest — to decide how Lady Gaga should split $1 million among five charities — ran from April 26 to May 6 and received 1,057,101 votes.>

She also lent her hand to the victims of the March 11 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, providing an exclusive remix of her single “Born This Way" for the Songs for Japan charity album.

Gaga also donated $1.5 million to Zynga’s fundraising initiative with Save the Children and the American Red Cross via sales of her Japan Prayer Bracelets.

Gilt Groupe Deals

Gilt Groupe offered sales curated by Gaga's fashion director, Nicola Formichetti, as well as charity sales of a Mugler dress worn by Gaga, entrance into the Paris Mugler fashion show and access to a performance from Gaga.

HBO Concert Special

HBO aired Gaga's Monster Ball concert at New York City's Madison Square Garden on May 7.

Rdio Free Music

Rdio created a BTW playlist and a corresponding contest to give away a free music subscription.

Facebook Engagement

Gaga ended 2010 as the celebrity with the most "Likes" on a Facebook Page with 24.7 million Likes.

She has one of the most active and engaged Facebook Pages not only because of her fans but also because she frequently shares status updates, photos, videos and news through the platform. On May 18, for example, she posted a photo collage that displays her album art on buildings, cars and even in and around a New York City subway train.

Vevo Exclusive Premieres

Vevo has so far exclusively premiered each of the official music videos for Born This Way.

The song "Born This Way" has racked up 52.7 million views on Vevo's website and "Judas" has accumulated 35.6 million.

VEVO also recently put together a Lady Gaga playlist available online, on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch or Android devices using the VEVO for iOS or VEVO for Android apps. The playlist includes live versions of "Edge of Glory/Judas" and "Born this Way’ from the May 21 season finale of Saturday Night Live.

iTunes Countdown

Capitalizing on her success, Lady Gaga released two additional songs in advance exclusively on iTunes. Fans got to hear "Edge of Glory" on May 9 and "Hair" on May 16 ahead of the May 23 album release.

GagaVision Videos

A fan favorite, GagaVision gives her Little Monsters a behind-the-scenes look at Gaga. In some of the videos, which are posted on YouTube, Gaga candidly discusses the creative process behind BTW. In other clips, fans get to see the people and places surrounding Gaga.

Twitter & TwitPic Trends

The messages she posts incite a tweet storm from her followers who retweet and @mention her comments, pictures and videos, as well as promote the hashtags she uses.

In April, for example, she revealed the BTW cover art via a Twitpic photo (seen above). The image garnered hundreds of thousands of views in mere minutes.

And More ...

As if that wasn't enough:

Gaga scattered QR codes (pictured) on the web that led back to iTunes where users could download a ringtone of "Born This Way."

Tapulous, a Disney Mobile venture, launched Born This Way Revenge, a Tap Tap Revenge app game for iPhone and iPod. The app features 17 tracks from the deluxe album version, access to GagaVision, Lady Gaga's Twitter feed, three exclusive chat rooms, the official lyrics and Haus of Gaga event lists.

“The web is what you make of it,” reads the parting text in Google Chrome‘s latest commercial featuring Lady Gaga.

It’s a simple eight-word slogan for Google’s web browser but it represents so much more when you connect it to Gaga, who took to the web this year to create an inescapable marketing spectacle for her Born This Way album.

In the months leading up to the May 23 album release — and even now — Gaga has paved a path for stars and brands to get inventive with the ways they use digital and social media to promote themselves and connect with fans.

The 25-year-old is no stranger to success on the web. She remains a heavyweight on major social networks: In the past year, Lady Gaga was the first artist to reach 1 billion views on YouTube; she beat President Barack Obama to 10 million Facebook fans (she’s now closing in on 35 million); and most recently, she was first Twitter user to acquire 10 million followers.

The promotional juggernaut further ramped up her all-encompassing web presence, fostering partnerships with Zynga for the FarmVille-inspired GagaVille, Starbucks for a massive scavenger hunt, VEVO for exclusive premieres, HBO for a concert special, Rdio for free lifetime subscriptions, iTunes for a promotional countdown, Best Buy and Livestream for an album signing and Gilt Groupe and Amazon Cloud Player for deals.

“Gaga and her team are some of the best marketers around; they understand the importance of integrating social with traditional media, engaging audiences in real-time, and most of all, telling a story that is relatable and worth spreading,” said Alexa Scordato, a Gaga fan, digital strategist and community manager for MAT@USC.

Even Lady Gaga’s critics have to acknowledge the magnitude of her marketing medley: “I’ll probably get cyber bullied after this from all her Little Monsters, but I’m not a huge Gaga fan,” said Romey Louangvilay, senior account executive of digital and social media at Euro RSCG PR. “With that said, I give her credit for her artistry and marketing genuineness.”

Below, we’ve compiled a huge swathe of the digital and social media initiatives behind Gaga’s Born This Way. Flip through the roundup and then let us know in the comments which tactics you thought were most creative or most ridiculous.

Zynga's GagaVille

On May 17, Zynga launched the Farmville-style GagaVille, which garnered much ridicule from Gaga haters and laughs from even the most devoted Little Monsters.

Gamers were able to unlock and stream unreleased tracks from Born This Way and bonus remixes. The game incorporated Gaga's style and personality with users having access to crystals, unicorns and sheep on motorcycles. The GagaVille campaign also incorporated Zynga game cards (buy a $25 card and receive the Born This Way album and bonus tracks for free); Words With Friends (use a Gaga word of the day and be entered for concert tickets); and RewardVille (win virtual goods to use in other Zynga games).

Starbucks Scavenger Hunt

Starbucks and Mother Monster teamed up on May 19 for “SRCH,” a two-week digital scavenger hunt in which participants can scan in-store QR codes, visit blogs and Starbucks digital properties, decode cryptic messages and answer trivia questions to earn prizes.

Yahoo joined the fun on May 23, helping transform the Starbucks Digital Network into all things Gaga. Visitors to the site had access to a special edition of the Born This Way for one day. They also received a free “Edge of Glory” download and an exclusive video by Lady Gaga singing a cappella.

"Considering that Lady Gaga may be the world’s hottest star right now and an innovative creator unlike anyone we’ve seen, imagine our delight when we learned that she’s also a big Starbucks fan," said Alexandra Wheeler, global digital strategy director for Starbucks, in a recent blog post.

The hunt ends June 7.

Google Chrome Commercial

In the this commerical, Gaga is shown at a computer typing inspirational messages such as, "This is our moment. ... Stay strong, Little Monsters!"

The video highlights two things other than the capabilities of Google's web browser: The extent to which fans will broadcast their adoration for Gaga and also Gaga's willingness to return their positive sentiments.

The song for the video is "Edge of Glory," a song from the new album.

Amazon's $0.99 Sale

Gaga fans woke up May 23 to a nice surprise: Amazon was selling the 14-song album as a digital download for a mere $0.99. Fans also received 20 GB of Cloud Drive storage from Amazon.

News of the massive sale spread like wildfire and consumers quickly started experiencing technical difficulties. With servers overwhelmed, people who bought the digital download were unable to immediately access all tracks.

In time, all songs became available, but Amazon users had already unleashed their anger by leaving one-star ratings due to Amazon’s slow service.

Amazon has not disclosed the number of downloads for Born This Way.

Best Buy Live Feed

On album launch day, Lady Gaga stayed up into the wee hours of the night to meet fans and sign autographs at a Best Buy in New York City.

Best Buy promoted the event with a live video feed from Livestream. The video was surrounded by interactive features for fans who couldn't make it to the event.

Google Interview

In March, Google executive Marissa Mayer interviewed Lady Gaga as part of the “Google Goes Gaga" event. She helped promote Google Moderator, a tool that allows fans to submit questions via text or video on the musician’s YouTube channel and subsequently vote for their favorites.

During the Q&A, Gaga talked about her forthcoming album and revealed that she would make her directorial debut alongside choreographer Laurieann Gibson for her second single, “Judas.”

Through Google Moderator, her fans asked 643 questions about the single.

Near the end, Gaga asked a rhetorical yet fitting question to the audience of Google employees and online viewers, “Don’t you love the Internet?”

Robin Hood Charity

In April, Gaga once again dipped her feet into social good by working with the Robin Hood Foundation to launch two Facebook contests in support of the New York-based charity, which benefits the poor and homeless between the ages of 16 and 24.

The contest — to decide how Lady Gaga should split $1 million among five charities — ran from April 26 to May 6 and received 1,057,101 votes.>

She also lent her hand to the victims of the March 11 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, providing an exclusive remix of her single “Born This Way" for the Songs for Japan charity album.

Gaga also donated $1.5 million to Zynga’s fundraising initiative with Save the Children and the American Red Cross via sales of her Japan Prayer Bracelets.

Gilt Groupe Deals

Gilt Groupe offered sales curated by Gaga's fashion director, Nicola Formichetti, as well as charity sales of a Mugler dress worn by Gaga, entrance into the Paris Mugler fashion show and access to a performance from Gaga.

HBO Concert Special

HBO aired Gaga's Monster Ball concert at New York City's Madison Square Garden on May 7.

Rdio Free Music

Rdio created a BTW playlist and a corresponding contest to give away a free music subscription.

Facebook Engagement

Gaga ended 2010 as the celebrity with the most "Likes" on a Facebook Page with 24.7 million Likes.

She has one of the most active and engaged Facebook Pages not only because of her fans but also because she frequently shares status updates, photos, videos and news through the platform. On May 18, for example, she posted a photo collage that displays her album art on buildings, cars and even in and around a New York City subway train.

Vevo Exclusive Premieres

Vevo has so far exclusively premiered each of the official music videos for Born This Way.

The song "Born This Way" has racked up 52.7 million views on Vevo's website and "Judas" has accumulated 35.6 million.

VEVO also recently put together a Lady Gaga playlist available online, on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch or Android devices using the VEVO for iOS or VEVO for Android apps. The playlist includes live versions of "Edge of Glory/Judas" and "Born this Way’ from the May 21 season finale of Saturday Night Live.

iTunes Countdown

Capitalizing on her success, Lady Gaga released two additional songs in advance exclusively on iTunes. Fans got to hear "Edge of Glory" on May 9 and "Hair" on May 16 ahead of the May 23 album release.

GagaVision Videos

A fan favorite, GagaVision gives her Little Monsters a behind-the-scenes look at Gaga. In some of the videos, which are posted on YouTube, Gaga candidly discusses the creative process behind BTW. In other clips, fans get to see the people and places surrounding Gaga.

Twitter & TwitPic Trends

The messages she posts incite a tweet storm from her followers who retweet and @mention her comments, pictures and videos, as well as promote the hashtags she uses.

In April, for example, she revealed the BTW cover art via a Twitpic photo (seen above). The image garnered hundreds of thousands of views in mere minutes.

And More ...

As if that wasn't enough:

Gaga scattered QR codes (pictured) on the web that led back to iTunes where users could download a ringtone of "Born This Way."

Tapulous, a Disney Mobile venture, launched Born This Way Revenge, a Tap Tap Revenge app game for iPhone and iPod. The app features 17 tracks from the deluxe album version, access to GagaVision, Lady Gaga's Twitter feed, three exclusive chat rooms, the official lyrics and Haus of Gaga event lists.

With the shift to growing social media consumption, brands should be taking every step to improve their presences on social platforms, starting with the behemoth that is Facebook.

Whether your business is new to the platform or it has been around for years, there is always room for improvement. Here are five quick and easy ways to make your Facebook stream more lively for fans.

1. Showcase Your Customers

Paint Along NYC, a New York City-based company offering painting workshops, uses Facebook to build its online community. After each painting class, the instructor uploads photos of the attendees with their works of art to the Paint Along NYC Facebook Page. Each photo album is labeled with the date of the class and the item that was painted, so that customers can easily find and tag their pictures.

During class, the instructor makes sure that attendees are aware that their photos can be found on the company’s public Facebook Page.

2. Have a Sense of Humor

Humor is said to increase a person’s levels of happiness and hope, so why not share happiness via Facebook?

Jules Thin Crust, a group of organic pizza shops in Pennsylvania, runs its Facebook Page with humor and community in mind. Operated by owner John Ordway and multiple store managers, the Jules Facebook Page has a very homey feeling. The Jules social media team doesn’t take itself too seriously — an advantage that many small businesses have over large branding-dominated corporations. When Facebook fans joke around, Jules Facebook admins are comfortable jumping right in there with the fun. The casual tone used by Jules staffers — and the fact that they personally know some of the fans — makes the updates more personable, relevant and relatable.

3. Give ‘Em Something To Consume

With such high engagement stats, Facebook has brands and content creators turning heads. Etsy, the commerce platform for handmade goods, is among the brands on Facebook that understands its following and then creates and curates content to fit its needs.

As expected, Etsy’s Facebook Page features a stream of the quirkiest products that are offered on its site. But the page also features a fair amount of original and curated content, including blog posts and videos that would be of interest to its followers. Some of the content originates from the Etsy Blog. While many of the links and videos are purely for fun, these pieces often start conversations among Etsy fans on the Page.

4. Ask Questions

It’s not enough to be broadcasting promotional messages — brands should make an effort at engaging with their audiences. Asking questions is a great way to kick off that two-way dialogue.

Take a look at any brand page on Facebook — it’s quite likely that posts with questions get more action than ones without questions. ReadyMade magazine, for example, mixes up the format of posts on its Facebook Page. Posts with questions seem to prompt more conversation, especially if the question is easy to answer. People are inclined to offer their opinions, especially when it’s so simple to get involved.

5. Take Us Behind the Curtain

Whether you own a restaurant, a tech startup or a construction company, your customers are interested in who works at your company and what goes on behind the scenes. And so, providing a glimpse behind the curtain can be an effective and engaging way to populate your Facebook Page.

You may think there aren’t many ways to make a car dealership more interesting or welcoming, but a well-run Facebook Page helps one New Jersey dealership exude a friendly vibe. Lester Glenn Auto Group uses Facebook to promote the cars it sells, announce philanthropic projects and make small talk with customers. Recent posts about holidays and summer camps have seen success relative to other posts, probably because of their non-promotional and down-to-earth tone.

The page also features lots of pictures from inside the dealership, including ones that highlight employees and events. A recent post, for example, celebrates the birthday of Internet Sales Rep Stacy Myers. These depictions of life at the dealership give fans a look inside the company, and they also help to humanize the brand.

Your Suggestions

Facebook can be a difficult medium for businesses to crack, since it’s one of the more personal social platforms out there. What tips would you suggest for brands hoping to liven up their Facebook streams?